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The curious case of Shane Victorino: A reminder to expect the unexpected

"One hundred and 62. That's my goal. I want to play every day." -- Shane Victorino in mid-March

BALTIMORE -- Intentions aren't the problem. That's the last thing you worry about when it comes to Shane Victorino (or these Red Sox).

Uncertainty regarding what awaits, however ... that's another story.

As Opening Day descends upon us, this is the reality that is sticking with both Victorino and his team. Both know what to do, how to do it and how to adjust when things don't go quite as planned. But experience doesn't offer any guarantees.

Welcome to another unpredictable baseball season, with Victorino surfacing as the Red Sox' first blind spot.

Monday morning the Red Sox were to discover if Victorino's right hamstring -- the one that put the right fielder on the disabled list a year ago -- would be sticking yet another thorn in the Sox' side. Yet, even with the ailment's history, this one came somewhat out of nowhere.

Here is Victorino 1 1/2 weeks ago: "Everything, physically I feel right where I want to be. I feel it's clicking to the point where I need to be. But I've always said, it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

While you can downplay the start, it is currently offering some uneasiness just the same. It's because, once again, Victorino's diagnosis managed to change without warning.

This is a guy who first discovered a pain tolerance few possess as a 10-year-old, having been thrown through the air after being hit by a car while riding his bike. The end result was Victorino simply getting up without any inclination to induce a scene.

"That might have been the first time," he said when asked about his realization that he could withstand physical discomfort better than most.

Finding examples of toughness are littered throughout Victorino's still-brief time in Boston, as he's played through hamstring, thumb and back woes all the way until he got on an operating table this past offseason. He found ways to get on the field and then perform admirably once there.

But '14 is a whole new ballgame, and nothing should have offered the Red Sox a better reminder of that than waiting on the results of their right fielder's MRI the first day of the regular season.

Like his team, Victorino found a way to auto-correct his physical challenges each step of the way last season. The same could be said for the Red Sox. This time around, however, the roadblocks have been coming fast and furious, even before a single pitch could bounce off the "switch-hitter's" body.

Three days into camp Victorino shut himself down after feeling the back problem that sat him for a pair of World Series games crop up. Purely precautionary, he said. It's what spring training was for -- using the triviality of spring training days to protect oneself from the rigors of the regular season.

"I could go 0-for-spring training, I don't care," Victorino said before playing his first Grapefruit League game on March 10. "I want to get my physical being feeling good, my body feeling good, my mental part of the game. If you want to judge me on what I did in spring training, so be it.

"For me the important part is physically getting everything correct, because I don't want to deal with what I dealt with last year. Let's get everything correct rather than having you out there doing activities and doing certain things that could lead you to breakdowns. I don't want that, they don't want that. Let's just make sure we get everything physically right."

Then came a swing against the Twins that sent a stinging sensation down the same right thumb on which he had nerve replacement surgery during the offseason. More time would have to be missed while the player and the medical staff attempted to decipher exactly what type of thumb guard was going to work when making contact.

"I was hoping that wouldn't happen, but deep down inside my gut instinct told me," he said regarding a reoccurrence. "Even after surgery I would hold the bat and just hold it in my hand and I could feel without making contact it was hitting the nerve. There was still scar tissue in there and the healing process going on. So do we have a chance of it getting better where it doesn't feel like that? Yes. But I'm not counting on it. I'm counting on it getting a little bit better and decreasing a little bit. But not ever feeling like it's not there. ... We all knew going into surgery. It was one of those surgeries where we were going to take a chance."

A calf injury then popped up in mid-March, followed by something with his side. And finally, the hamstring (which hadn't been an issue throughout most of camp).

"I don't know that you look at it as troubling," Red Sox manager John Farrell said regarding Victorino's latest injury. "You look at it as a situation that has to be managed. Even coming into this year, if we weren't in the situation we're in now, if he was healthy, we figured there'd be days or games where he'd need a breather, much like other players. And then you respond to what's thrown your way. Right now, we're questionable whether Shane is going to be available [Monday] or for the coming days."

The Red Sox will survive playing the Orioles without Victorino. And in the big picture, the Opening Day storyline of the Sox' No. 2 hitter potentially missing some April games can be forgotten in short order. But what the injury (and injuries) offers is a a reminder.

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